What's in Bloom today

(Daylily 'Good Vibrations')

Life has been a bit crazy this past week. Storms, power outages, kids underfoot, so I thought I'd stick in a quick photo op to show some of the summer perennials that are beginning to bloom.

In the herb garden, the clumps of Rue are covered with their simple yellow flowers. I love the blue foliage on this plant.



Daylily 'Navajo Princess' has a chevron pattern that is extremely distinctive. The great news is that this is an older cultivar and if you find it for sale it will usually run only $7 or $8.

Stachys monieri was a plant I bought many years ago at the local Franks Nursery. I rarely have seen it in any other gardens and I just adore it's cottage flower charm.


Sedum 'Matrona' is starting to show off her colors. Who needs flowers with foliage that looks like this? But wait, there's stunning blooms too that will come at the end of summer when we desperately need them.


Tiny little Daylily 'Mary Ethyl Anderson' is a delight in the front of the perennial garden.


Years ago I bought a yellow Asclepias for my garden. It was beautiful for 4 years or so and then disappeared. Last year I noticed a foliage that seemed familiar but it was a good 20 feet away from the original plant. Hooray, today there are two clumps of Asclepias blooming in the garden and I've found the foliage for more of them coming along.



Stachys monieri 'Hummelo' is a named variety of this delightful flower. It's blooms are more in the purple family than the pink one I highlighted earlier.


Holy cow, this Iris Ensata (Japanese Iris) is a late blooming wonder! I'd give you all the name if I could only find it. It's there somewhere at the base but the companion plants are so thick that I haven't found it yet.


Double daylilies are doubly delicious! 'Double Perfection' was hybridized right here on Long Island by George Rasmussen (one of my most favorite hybridizers). It's name is right on the money because it doubles every time (unlike some other double daylilies that are actually quite sporadic).

And that's it for today folks. I'll try to sneak in a few more photos this week but I can tell you in advance that it's going to be one more crazy week around here.

Bye!
Melanie

On bulldozing gardens……

A ‘debate’ on the future of Hadspen House garden at the Museum of Garden History in London on June 27 was an interesting event. At long last, an event with some intelligent discussion about gardens, although it’s a shame that the gardeners in the audience felt at times somewhat overawed by the architects. Niall Hobhouse’s decision to start with a new garden at Hadspen following the departure of Nori and Sandra Pope with a dramatic ‘Year Zero’ has been congratulated and welcomed by many – the good turnout and richly textured discussion at the museum reflected this.

Niall Hobhouse is, and has been brave. It was also brave of him to have his mother on a panel discussing the project. And it was brave of him to end up the evening by having an email from Nori and Sandra read out; they supported him in his desire to begin again, but there was no disguising their dismay at the destruction of 20 years work and ‘300 years’ of garden history. The latter figure is of course hype – there is nothing extant within the walls older than a few decades.

The Popes pointed out how English gardens characteristically evolve, with one layer of history on top of another. They could also have pointed out how many great gardens have at least one period of neglect in their history. Quite so. All the more reason perhaps for the “now for something completely different” approach. Only the bulldozing of the garden could clean the slate. Whoever emerges from the design competition will be able to start afresh with their ideas. To not have bulldozed it, would have condemned the new gardener/designer to be shackled by the remnants of the Pope’s, and Penelope’s, work.

The delicious possibility was raised that perhaps other gardens could be bulldozed, in order to start again. It would have been interesting to have a straw poll of suggestions of targets from the audience.

The Necessary Room

The first time we saw our house, we had been looking for a new home for two years. We had a list of "must haves" and this house had almost nothing on that list (including no master bathroom which was "non-negotiable").

(All that bordered this driveway back then was lawn, lawn and more lawn.)

What this house did have was charm and before we even walked through the front door we had fallen in love. My first recollection was the property was amazing, the fireplace inside the house was humongous, the house was smaller than what I wanted and the pool house was the perfect thing for a gardener.

(At six and two years old, my daughters first noticed the old school play ground equipment attached to the pool house.)

(It's got a toilet and a sink with cold running water. What more could you ask for?)

Our pool house has several names, sometimes I call it a cabana but that is really too uppity a name. Sometimes I call it a pool house which is most likely the correct title but often I call it a fancy outhouse. You see, it's pretty basic, the bathroom is one step above camping, the pool filter fills it with a constant rumbling and the smell of pool chemicals and the mini-fridge is just big enough to hold lots of water and drinks for when you are hot and thirsty from working in the garden all day.

Last year we had 600 people come tour the garden when we were part of the national tour for the American Hemerocallis Society (Daylilies). In the past I had ignored the outside of the pool house, it just had the attached playground equiptment and that was good enough for me.

I dressed it up with some pots and garden junque for the tours and found that I now have the most beautiful view right outside my den window (where I sit to type this blog). So even though no major tours are planned this year, I had to replant all the pots around the pool house. One thing I did though was add lots of Hosta to the pots in hopes that they give me something that returns year after year.

(These hanging baskets were $1 at the dollar store and I've had them five years now! I guess I got my money's worth out of them.)

The end :-)
Melanie

Let’s face it, we all love a good row.

But in the gardening world, we don’t have that many of them. We go around being terribly polite to each other; bitching and sniping to be sure, but very little of the public dirty linen laundry that you see in many other fields of human endeavour. I suppose its because gardeners are basically nice people (pat on back).
Well now, here is a good one. The garden at Veddw House, the innovative garden created by Anne Wareham and Charles Hawes near Chepstow, HAS BEEN DROPPED FROM THE RHS GARDEN FINDER. Shock! horror! Apparently because of “poor maintenance and cultivation”. You can see Anne and Charles’s response at . They share with us some appalling examples of ruin, dilapidation, and weed rampages at some of the gardens the RHS Garden Finder editor, Charles Quest-Ritson, sees fit to include in his guide – an ‘also-ran’ to the Good Gardens Guide, for those who don’t know it.
Yes, Veddw does sometimes get a bit rough at the edges, but then they don’t employ anybody, and the garden is in fact overwhelmingly well-maintained. There must be other reasons why Mr.Quest-Ritson has seen fit to dump not only one of the most thoughtful and deliberately challenging modern gardens from his guide, but also one which bears nothing other than the stamp of the RHS itself, who work with Anne and Charles on promoting the garden and events held there.
Perhaps Mr Quest-Ritson does not know a wild garden when he sees one. Moving on from the frantic rubbing of hands at this particularly juicy bit of scandal and name-calling, there is a serious point here. How do you convey intention with wild gardens? Christo (the late and great) did it the classic way – you can see that that grass is meant to be grass is long because of the neatly clipped topiary scattered about. Cutting paths through long grass is another well-known way of conveying intention. But with wild borders it is more difficult, especially when you include plants which some might regard as weeds. Anne and Charles have been braver than I would be in letting rosebay willowherb loose in their borders – but it is a fantastic ornamental. The problem is that certain plants are labelled weeds and the unimaginative then see any place which includes them as weedy. And therefore not nice.
A ‘native wild flower’ only area might contain such ‘weedy’ plants and be passed as acceptable. But the mixing of the two, of the cultivated and the wild, creates an ambiguity, the question is asked – “is it meant to look like that?” Provoking the garden visitor to ask such questions could be a very worthwhile act in itself. And why not mix robust native flora with robust ornamentals? Creeping buttercup makes a very attractive understorey to shrubs and large perennials. Breaking down old barriers and celebrating ambiguity is all a part of modernity and experimentation. Perhaps Mr Quest-Ritson should let some Ranunculus repens loose beneath his roses.

My critical review of Veddw can be seen at:

Gardening in straight Lines?

27.May.2007
We moved two years ago. And of course quite a bit of the last garden came with us. Courtesy of a friend who was a National Trust head gardener at the time, who thought that helping me dig up the last garden (rendering the place into a passable imitation of a First World War battlefield in the process) would be a good ‘training exercise’ for her staff. (Thanks Deb!).
At the new place everything just came out of the back of the van and got planted in straight lines – individuals of a variety together but otherwise randome. And it was quite remarkable how at the end of the summer, when a lot of things were in flower, just how many people said to us ‘Oh what a lovely border’, as if it had actually been designed – it makes you think about whether there is any point in designing anything. Perhaps the key point was the plant selection worked together – a result of my plant choice over the years – largely an unconscious process, and NOT the actual putting together of the plants. It reminds me of the number of people who have said to me, or published in articles, that they love Piet Oudolf’s stock beds – which are a more or less random collection of plants. I am sure Piet laid them down with at least a subconsicous pattern, or intention. But the important point is that placing does not actually matter that much - sorry designers!! Plant selection is perhaps more important.
Ok – the straight lines look kinda naff first thing in the year, when you can see them. I mean, nobody actually likes plants in straight lines really do they – apart from cabbages; forestry plantations are derided because they are in straight lines, its fine to put hedges in straight lines, but definitely not herbaceous. Apart from those rather awful ranks of perennials at the 2005 BUGA in Munich. Mix them up a bit though and after a couple of months growth you don’t even notice they are in lines, at least until you are right on top of the line. There is a huge practical advantage for weed control – you can just hoe off anything that comes up between the rows – like in a field of crops.
In terms of keeping an eye on what is happening it is useful too. I am interested in how perennials spread, seed, and move within the border. It is difficult to appreciate this in a ‘normal’ border, but if everything starts off in a line, then it is possible to see when things start to move, or start producing seedlings. Could be a good research tool. So, for now, the straight lines are staying into their second season – re-arranged and partly randomised, some things taken out and put elsewhere. And from now I hope that we will start to get some self-sowing between the lines, and an increasing level of blurring. Once the plants you want, start to self-sow, then there is competition for weed seedlings and we start to move into the creation of an artificial eco-system, ultimately what I had in the last garden – which is an almost continuous vegetation canopy – very low maintenance and distinctly naturalistic in effect.
Planting in straight lines then is not a commitment to continuing to do so, but a good starting point, a pragmatic beginnning.

This Blog is meant to be........... read on.,....

This blog …. is meant to be an occasional source of interest and opinion, and possibly of irritation and annoyance; for anyone who may want to know what I am currently doing in my own garden and in my work. I have published much ‘conventionally’ and shall continue to do so… but this is a way of doing so which is entirely under my own control. Say exactly what I want. Garden publishing is very restrictive in many ways. This is an opportunity to supplement my published work with a body of work which would fit into the current options for garden journalism. Gardening of course links into so many other areas of life too, so there will be occasional digressions …. food, agriculture, environment, ecology. It will be a place to express opinions…. which I do not expect everyone to agree with. There is too much agreement in gardening, too much complacency, not enough debate.
This month’s Garden/RHS Journal (June 2007) includes a piece in which I argue that there is a role for non-residual weedkillers in the garden, especially for the promotion of wildlife. Red rag to the organic lobby, whose occupation of the moral high ground deserves to be challenged.

http://www.rhs.org.uk/learning/publications/pubs/garden0607/june_contents.asp

To Bee or not to Bee

(The garden as it looked last night. Lots of pollen and nectar to be had.)

Bumble bees have always been like jewels in my garden.

Luckily, I'm not allergic to any stings. In fact, two years ago I stepped on a wasps nest and was stung 12 to 15 times on my legs. Although I was in severe pain, I only experienced some shakiness for the first few hours and that was most likely due to shock.

When my daughters were little my dad would come over and show them how to pet a bumble bee. He'd look for the tall stalks of Liatris. Sure enough by late afternoon they'd be studded with drunken bees and you could gently take your finger and stroke their back.

(Bees aren't all that like Liatris. Every garden should have waves and waves of this plant.)

The only time anybody has been stung by a bumble bee here is when they were walking barefoot over the clover.

(Besides on clover, I always find bees on the bloom stalks of lambs ears (Stachys byzantine)

Our local paper has carried a number of articles this year about the sudden collapse of bee hives. This is a huge problem for the entire world and I hope they figure out what is causing this disaster. That being said, yesterday I found a nest of bumble bees!

(Can you say "Cheese" little bee?)

Our sprinkler system is all on one zone but there's a strip of pop up heads along the driveway that needs to be turned on with this little valve. The valve is in a nice neat hole in the ground with a good hard cover. Many times I keep that cover off because that hole seems to be the perfect hole for every creature in the garden. Two years I found chipmunks in there, this past winter there was a family of mice or voles in there and now, there's a ground nest of bees.

I wasn't sure if they were bees until I read about them at http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2143.html These guys fit the profile perfectly. Since the nest is an annual event, I'm going to leave it bee (ha!). There are no tours coming through the garden this year and if people come over I'll just cover the hole so nobody disturbs the bees. I tried like crazy to get their picture yesterday as they buzzed across the tops of my Spirea but they just wouldn't hold still and pose for the camera.

Off to water,
Melanie

Plant Profile - Baptisia (false Lupine)

Happy Monday all,

Although my first inclination was to write a post about garden furniture, I thought it's been a while since I actually focused on plant material.

The first Baptisia plant I bought was the standard blue variety. We were living in a different house, on a 1/4 acre piece of property and I was truly a novice gardener. That Baptisia grew quickly and made a wonderful statement in one of my perfectly square beds. But, when it came time for us to move, I dug half-way to China and still didn't get to the bottom of it's roots. I left it behind, only to find out a year later that the new owners removed that garden to extend the driveway.

Since Baptisias aren't all that expensive, I just picked up another blue one and put it in my garden here. It wasn't a named variety, at least it didn't come with a name. As before, it quickly grew to the size of a shrub. Unfortunately this time I hadn't placed it correctly and I ended up having to remove it two years ago.

Baptisia 'Purple Smoke' is a variety that's been on the market for a number of years now. It too was planted in a temporary location. Oops! If you haven't guessed yet, Baptisia's do not transplant well. I tried pretty hard to get as much of 'Purple Smoke' as possible. Since it had only been in that spot a few years it was still pretty small but two years later it still looks awful in it's new home.(Hopefully you can see the size of the whole Baptisia plant in this photo. Remember, they don't like to be moved so think carefully before you plant one of these lovely creatures.)
About 5 years ago I was lecturing in Mississippi when I saw a white Baptisia. It was love at first sight! It took a while but I finally found one and planted it in the garden here. I'm guessing that we're at it's northern most growing zone, this crazy winter gave it a run for the money but it's blooming right now (a bit smaller than last year) and I just adore it. Reading about it on line here I found out that I can collect the seeds and grow them on. It does have wonderful seed pods and I usually let seeds sow on their own but I've never noticed a seedling growing around this beauty.

Another Baptisia I have in my back yard is the wonderful yellow variety 'Screaming Yellow'. As you can see by the photo, the name is quite apropos. My one mistake here was planting it next to a Physocarpus 'Diablo'. The color combination is quite smashing but the nine-bark out grows it so quickly that it blocks all the sun. This time though I've learned my lesson. As soon as the Physocarpus finished blooming I cut it back hard and I plan on moving it as soon as I can figure out where the heck I can fit it in.

Last year I cut the Physocarpus back very hard before it leafed out. Although I lost all the bloom that year, it still gave me a wonderful dark purple backdrop. In this photo you can see the beautiful white Alliums that I have planted in that same spot. This year not one single allium bloomed although there is some sickly looking foliage there. It's a mystery to me what happened, could it be our lousy winter or was it just too much shade? I always thought those nibbling creatures stay away from alliums.

I wish I had a photo of a blue or purple Baptisia to share but the ones I have are slides and I still haven't figured out how to get them here.

By the way, if you are looking for more information on Baptisias, I found the most wonderful write up at http://www.plantdelights.com/Tony/baptisia.html Now I don't know why that's not highlighted the way a link usually is but hopefully when I post this it will come through correctly. If not, google 'plantdelights baptisia' and I'm sure you'll find it.

Off to hunt for more garden furniture. I'll take some pictures late this afternoon so you can see what I'm looking for.

Melanie

Hardscape finished

(Another view of our horrendous old stoop)

Well, our wonderful magic makers at Libardi Island Landscape really outdid themselves. They finished up on the masonry job here at our house and Don and I can honestly say that they exceeded our wildest dreams!

Here you can see a close up of the pavers we chose. Pete and Tony really recommended these imported pavers made by Rinox and we're so glad we listened to them. The color we chose is Milton Grey and the style is Trevia.

The biggest design problem we had encounted was tying in the different areas. For some reason, each spot was paved with a different type of material and none of them seemed to match with the other ones.

Today you constantly hear nightmare stories about contractors so it's such a wonderful feeling to know that you made one of the best choices ever. Pete (Piero) and Tony (Antonio) along with their crew never gave us one moment of worry. When we had a question, Pete would stop by in person and explain things and work them out with us. He kept us updated as to their schedule (the weather plays such an important role for them) and made sure that they would get this job done in plenty of time for us to get ready for our daughters graduation party.

This silly patio in front of our breezeway was such an eyesore. It was constructed with completely different materials than the walk-way just feet in front of it, different from the breezeway floor itself and different again from the patio just behind the breezeway. There was just no sense of cohesion here, instead we had a mish-mash of hardscape.

Just last week when Pete came by to check on a question we had with the sprinkler heads, he told us that he had a brain storm and urged us to consider connecting the various areas so that we really had one single hardscape. Such a simple thought but one we had never considered, what a Genius!

Here you can see Tony working on the intricate herringbone pattern which he recommended and we are madly in love with. Can you see our other floating platform in the back ground?

Finally, here's the finished walkway leading into the patio in front of the breezeway. This afternoon I took out most of that plant material and began landscaping my new beds. Stay tuned for one final installation showing the shrubs I've chosen to highlight our new stonework.

Melanie

Hardscape Time

(Ick, our front walk and stoop were an insurance agents nightmare. We no longer felt safe standing on that front stoop. Forget about any welcoming feeling.)

Hardscape is such an important part of any landscape package but easily the most expensive. When we bought our house (almost 11 years ago), we knew we'd need quite a bit of stone work down the road.

The front stoop was so small that you had to step back and down one step just to get the door open. That was pretty ridiculous considering our front lawn is almost 3/4's of an acre. The walkway from the driveway to the stoop was only set in sand and had been undermined by chipmunks more times that I can count.

A few years ago we began to look into estimates on having masonry work done here. The first time I asked for everything at once, the front walk and stoop, the driveway, the back patio and the pool patio. OUCH! That first estimate was the size of a down payment on a house.

(First view of the new stoop and floating platform)

Since then we've had one or two estimates a year, just for the work in front of the house. Not one of the people who came here excited us. Basically they offered a plan very similar to what was here. I'm the first to admit that I know nothing about this kind of design work but I knew that we needed some kind of inspiration. Along came Libardi Island Landscaping Corp. and suddenly we knew we were in the right hands.

(Preparing the foundation for the new walkway)

Pete and Tony Libardi were doing work on the house across the street from us and we did our usual "come give us an estimate" dance. Right from the start we knew things were different. They had done such a classy job on the house across the street. Pete came up with some ideas that I would have never conceived on my own. Not only would the stoop be larger but there would be a "floating platform" at the base of the stoop and then the walkway would be another level.

(Work on the walk way and patio in front of the breezeway begin today)

Today we are only half way through the job and Don and I are just ecstatic. These guys are awesome! Not only is their work amazing and their prices highly competitive, they continue to come up with new ideas.

Just in case you live on Long Island and are looking for a recommendation for some great masons, I took the above photo. We highly recommend Libardi Island Landscaping Corp. Although the job they did here was strictly masonry, they also did a totally awesome landscape package on the house across the street from us.

I've got to go back out and watch the magic they are creating,
Melanie

Dogs Versus Cats as the Ultimate garden pet

(Man's best friend)

If you are a gardener and are thinking of getting a pet, here's some timely advice.

Get a cat. Dog's are cute and might be mans best friend but when it comes to gardening, they will make your blood pressure POP!

Cat's slink around the plants in your garden.
Good cat.

Dog's thunder through the plants in your garden.
Bad dog.

Cats will hunt down any vole, mouse, chipmunk or bunny eating up your garden.
Good cat.

Dogs will chase any vole, mouse, chipmunk or bunny through your garden, decimate a 15 foot swath and come up empty handed with a big goofy grin on their face.

Bad dog.

(What makes you think I was sniffing down that chipmunk hole again?)

Cats will wait patiently at the opening of a chipmunk hole for hours until the wee creature emerges and then pounce.
Good cat.

Dogs will dig out that chipmunk hole so far that you will be looking at China (most likely a Chinese gardener with a dog will be peering back at you).
Bad dog.

Cats are nice and quiet so you can hear yourself think. When a visitor comes by you can actually have a conversation.
Good cat.

Dogs are loud, rude and disruptive. Even if you put them in the house, shut all the windows and doors, you will have to ask your visitor to walk 50 feet down the driveway before you can carry on any kind of conversation with them.
Bad dog.

(If you think I can't still hear you, you're wrong!)

When cats dig holes in your garden, it's to bury their business.
Good cat.

When dogs dig holes in your garden, it's just for fun, and never where you need a new hole.
Bad dog.

(Yes, I know the compost heap was on the other side of this wall, I just wanted to dig on this side.)

You can carry home the biggest bag of cat food and not hurt your back.
Good cat.

If you try to carry a bag of dog food without wearing a hernia belt you will find yourself making best friends with the chiropractor.
Bad dog.

Cats do not steal your every garden tool and barbeque utensil every time you turn your head.
Good cat.

Dogs will steal anything not nailed down and chew the living daylights out of it. They will stoop so far as to stick their head under the barbeque vinyl cover just to get a hold of that scrubby grill brush that smells like burnt meat.
Bad dog.

When a cat is inside the house it will not enter a room if the door is shut.
Good cat.

When you have lever door knobs, your dog will figure out how to open any door they desire.
Bad dog.

(Of course I didn't make that mess. You should be more careful with your trash.)

Cats give themselves baths.
Good cat.

(I don't know what you're talking about. I like that smell.)

Dogs never give themselves baths. They will run through every mud puddle in the garden, prance around in a rain storm, attack the sprinkler and then balk at standing in the bathtub unless you join them. Then when they are soaking wet and you turn your back they will make a run for it, open doors and lay down on your bed, on YOUR pillow, not your husbands pillow.

Bad dog.

(Hey! How are you supposed to get a drink around here?)

(What do you mean by "this couch is for people"?)

At the worst a cat will use a plant marker as a back scratcher.
Good cat.

At its best a dog will chew your plant marker only enough so that you can still make out the name (but you will have no hope for finding out where it came from).
Bad dog.

(No words necessary)

Every cat I've had has come when I've called its name.
Good cat.

When I call my one dog by her name she looks at me with that teen-age look. (I see your lips moving but all I hear is Blah, Blah, Blah.)
Bad dog.

(Table? What table? How was I supposed to know not to sleep on the table?)

Cats sleep all day while you are working and then do what ever they do at night while you are sleeping.
Good cat.

Dogs drive you crazy all day long and then try to sleep on your bed while you are laying exhausted in it at night.
Bad dog.

Thus goes one week with Calie the wonder-dog. After a harrowing week of chasing my labradoodle Calie around the yard as she devasted multiple plantings, decimated a family of bunnies and traumatized a colony of chipmunks I've decided to post the pro's and con's to having a dog or cat. Before we had Calie, we were always a cat family so I know well what that was like.

My yard is totally trampled!
ARRRRGGGHHHH.

Children in the Garden

Blithers, I love those succulents but they gave me writers block!



Time for a subject change. One thing that's been dear to me for years is ideas for children in the garden. My girls are older now, one is almost 18 and the other is 13. Still, I'm always looking for ways both conscious and subconscious to have them fall in love with the garden.

Last month my youngest daughter Emily and I walked the garden at twilight. We took along a small bud vase and a pair of clippers and I encouraged her to cut a small arrangement for her night table. Since then I've refreshed that arrangement and a matching one for Lauren's room.

While I simply adore flowers in the garden, I was never one to cut them to bring inside. So my search begins, I'm looking for flowers that have a long life after being cut.

Number one are Hosta leaves. They add class to any arrangement and if you remember to change the water every few days, you will get at least 3 weeks out of those leaves!

Here you can see the leaves that have already been in this vase for two weeks.



I've added a simple white Salvia bloom and cut a stalk of Lychnis (catch-fly).




Finally, I decided to also add a white Tradescantia and Amsonia



Here you can see the finished result on Emily's night table.



While I'll never win a flower show award with this one I still think it's a charming last sight before you turn out the light.

Happy cutting!
Melanie